Beneath the Shifting Sands
by DarkEyedDemon
Summary: An undead assassin, an orcish berserker, a mage who has no past, a Night Elf priestess, and the ancient legend of an unspeakable horror hidden beneath the earth. Join the adventure, the Qiraji await.


DarkEyedDemon: Well well well, this is definitely my longest leave of absence. I know I've said I'll try to update this story more often about a thousand times, but there really isn't anything more I can do to assure you. With that, a-here we go.

Disclaimer: I do not own Azeroth. That belongs to the Blizzard Titans. The races are also their creations, not mine. I'm not going to go and try messing with gods.

"Light fires, quickly! Set up a perimeter around the clearing!"

Sergeant Bennison was regretting taking this assignment into Silverpine Forest. His was one of twenty squads that had been deployed from Stormwind Keep. After a long trip to Southshore, they had begun their march into the cursed woods. Things were dangerous enough in Hillsbrad because of the undead settlement of Tarren Mill, but Silverpine was thrust right up against the enemy. Bennison's had been paired with another squad, under the command of Sergeant Hillfield, at the beginning of the expedition. Now, all of Hillfield's squad, including the sergeant himself, and most of Bennison's own men had gone missing. They never got a clear look at their attackers, but from what they could tell their stalkers had been following them since they had crossed the border.

Currently, they had stumbled upon a clearing in the thick woodlands, and were sparking up as many campfires as possible to fend off the encroaching darkness of the night. Bennison had become completely cut off from the other squads, and they had been chased too far from the border to attempt a retreat, even though the further into the forest they went the more likely they were to find undead encampments.

One of Bennison's soldiers approached him and threw a shaky salute. "Fires prepared as to your orders, sir."

"Very good. I want round-the-clock guards on this clearing until we break camp." If there was one thing Bennison was good at, it was putting up a confident front for his inferiors. Panicking now would only lead him and his men into further disaster.

Every man in the clearing jumped and reached for their swords when an unholy din started somewhere nearby. It sounded like some kind of wild beast gripped in pain and rage, and it was coming closer. As soon as they were able to tell from what direction the noise was emanating, the soldiers braced themselves for an attack. Bennison drew his own sword and held it out in front of him. His weapon shook uncontrollably as he waited in complete fear for the arrival of the creature.

Suddenly, things became clear to Bennison. The appearance of a knife blade, mere inches from his neck, showed to him that this noise was just a distraction from the real threat.

"Bastar-"Before he could finish his sentence the cold blade slid across his throat and ended his life. Bennison's troops didn't notice the fall of their commander, as their eyes had become focused on what they believed was the only problem. The wild beast turned out to be a massive orc, his eyes drowned in flames of rage. The colossal green-skin swung a battle axe in front of him, cutting the first two soldiers clean in half. The others tried to raise their swords and defend themselves, but they were like lambs for the slaughter before the vicious onslaught of the orcish warrior. Once the last human fell, the flames died out of the orc's eyes, and he hefted his large axe over his powerful shoulder. The undead that had killed the sergeant was cleaning off his blade.

"Couldn't you have done that a little more quietly, Dragonstar?" questioned the undead casually.

"We can't all be as quiet as you, Darkwolf. Besides, these were the last ones, right? We can finally stop chasing humans around these rotting woods."

The orc, known as Gruzul Dragonstar, and the undead assassin, called Darkwolf, both put their weapons back in their respective holsters and slipped off into the night, leaving the human bodies for the worgs to clean up.

DED: Short, I know, but by now we all know I'm not much for beginnings. Besides, I just needed to introduce these main characters, and I didn't really want to do too much after they showed up.


End file.
